Lenovo IdeaPad U310 and U410 are the affordable Ultrabooks

When Ultrabooks came out late last we saw the best the laptop manufacturers have to offer. We saw the thinnest, brightest, sturdiest and the most kick-ass specs. We also saw the ghastly price these Ultrabooks are packing. The dust has settled and it’s now time to bring in the Ultrabooks that are friendlier to the pocket, we don’t need 256GB SSD, nor wafer-thin design. We just want them thin, light, and functional without the high cost.

Heralding the arrival of the Ultrabooks for the budget-conscious is Lenovo and its IdeaPad U310 and U410 which was unveiled at CES 2012. By now, you would safely guess that U310 will stand for a 13-inch and the U410 is for the 14-inch version. These new IdeaPad Ultrabooks are based on the IdeaPad U300s but a hair of an inch thicker and just tad bit heavier. What you’ll also get is inferior materials used but how does $500 cheaper sound?

You would still get the latest Intel Core processor, 4GB RAM, 8-hours battery life, USB 3.0 and a memory card slot which the IdeaPad U300s lacks. The U310 will only get integrated graphics but the U410 is equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce 610M 1GB graphics. Base configuration will have you at 500GB HDD but there are versions that come with SSDs.

Again, we’ll keep you posted on local pricing and availability but stateside, the U310 and U410 starts at $699 and will be available come May. With these price, it is the most affordable Ultrabook we’ve seen so far but of course, we’ll be expecting more as days go by.

When you say inferior materials, you mean it won’t have the aluminum shell of the 300s? how about the touch pad? Does that mean it’s going to be built out of plastic cuz the pics still look like it’s metallic but that could just be paint.